Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
Back up files with a printer and scanner
Ralf Maximus:
While it looks like I'm bagging on PaperBack I'm not really. I am impressed with the concept and implementation, the same way I'd be impressed by a steam-powered cell phone or those guys that built a nuclear reactor into a B-29 just to see if atomic airplanes were feasible. Incredibly cool, but seriously: WTF?
2D barcodes are a mature product. UPS uses them on their packages for routing information. Chances are, your drivers license has a K or two of data encoded on the back using 2D. Assuming you have the right kind of laser gun, download one of the many 2D barcoding SDKs out there and get to work... the ability to encode naked pictures of yourself on the back of your businesscard is but a day's sweet labor!
My point in posting was to point out the absurdity of this technology for future-proofing data. The suggested use of making durable paper backups usable by future generations was just too amusing to ignore.
If something is so important that you worry your great-grandkids will suffer for not knowing it, then become a famous author and publish your data as an appendix to one of your works. Millions of your books will be published, sold, kept in libraries and dusty warehouses, traded by airplane travellers and left in nursing homes and doctors offices. Hundreds of years from now at least ONE of your books will survive, insuring your AOL password (or whatever) is safe.
mwb1100:
My point in posting was to point out the absurdity of this technology for future-proofing data. The suggested use of making durable paper backups usable by future generations was just too amusing to ignore.-Ralf Maximus (October 05, 2007, 08:28 AM)
--- End quote ---
You're correct. Though I wasn't really serious about using PaperBack to future-proof your data.
If something is so important that you worry your great-grandkids will suffer for not knowing it, then become a famous author and publish... Hundreds of years from now at least ONE of your books will survive, insuring your AOL password (or whatever) is safe.
-Ralf Maximus (October 05, 2007, 08:28 AM)
--- End quote ---
But I am serious that data longevity is a problem that needs to be thought about.
What about my will, family's genealogy, or personal papers that I may think are just great (but no one else does - yet)? I doubt you're interested in my photos of my grandfather from WWI. Samuel Pepy's Diary was not published until 100 years after he died. I know that that PaperBack is not the way to archive this stuff; my point is that CD's, DVDs, Travan tapes, floppies, etc. are also not the way to preserve this stuff.
Even when something is deemed important today, if you want it to be accessible centuries from now, then some thought needs to go into deciding how you're going to ensure it will endure and be usable.
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/careers/hottopic16.htm
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0405/msg00079.html
http://blog.pacdat.net/article.php?story=20050424115412139
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4201645.html
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/26768
As for carving your important info into granite - this is exactly why Kings & Emperors have gone through the expense.
katykaty:
If you just want to have an off chance that you'll be able to watch Shrek 2 in 50 years time, tape it off the TV and stick it in the back of a cupboard somewhere, and hope you'll be able to pick up a working VCR from an antique shop in half a century.
- legal under UK copyright law, by the way Wink
--- End quote ---
Actually technically not. It is legal to video stuff from TV to watch it at a time other than its broadcast time. Strictly it isn't legal to keep that copy in perpetuity to watch whenever you want or to archive it. That is what purchased VHS and DVD is currently for. Not that any one in the UK takes any notice of such regulations.
-Carol Haynes (October 04, 2007, 06:16 PM)
--- End quote ---
Sorry Carol; that's what I meant - to keep it to eventually watch once. So many people wilfully read 'a more convenient time' as 'any convenient times'
Grorgy:
Last i heard we have problems with just having a blank video tape on the premises because it COULD be used to break the law, well stupid laws shouldnt be and arent generally supported, i think at last count there are about 15million households here in Aus with a VCR and I would go so far as to suggest that more than 1/2 have a blank tape, the courts will be busy ;D
Mark0:
Uhm... Considering that app like PaperBack are around, and enable one to store digital data on plain paper sheets... hope some Marjors-funded politicians don't come with some bright idea about taxing paper! :)
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